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Biology 106 2015 > Intro to Ecology > Flashcards

Intro to Ecology Flashcards

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1
Q

Ecology

A

scientific study of interactions of organisms with their physical environment and with each other

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2
Q

major goal of ecology

A

to explain the abundance and distribution of organisms

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3
Q

historically, ecology was a what kind of science?

A

observational and often descriptive

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4
Q

modern ecology includes:

A

observation and experimentation

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5
Q

experimental ecology

A

manipulation of organisms or their environments to determine mechanisms governing abundance and distribution

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6
Q

the current abundance and distribution of kelp is a result of ________.

A

predation

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7
Q

true or false:

ecology and evolutionary biology are closely related disciplines

A

true
-events occurring in ecological time (minutes, days, years) translate into effects over evolutionary time (decades, millennia)

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8
Q

evolutionary ecology

A

examines how interactions between and within species evolve

-ex. hawks feeding on mice impact traits of a mouse population

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9
Q

ecologists work at levels ranging from individual organisms to the biosphere

A

-hierarchy of life

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10
Q

levels of organization

A
  • population ecology
  • community ecology
  • ecosystem ecology
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11
Q

population ecology

A

-focuses on interactions of individuals within a population

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12
Q

community ecology

A
  • focuses on groups of interacting populations of different species that live in the same place at the same time
  • community refers to a group of humans who live and interact in the same small geographic location
    • gold community
  • ecological community includes all organisms s that live/ interact with us in space and time
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13
Q

ecosystem ecology

A
  • the integrated study of living (biotic) and nonliving (abiotic) components of an environment
  • major focus on energy flow across the hierarchy of life
    • food chains/ webs, trophic levels
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14
Q

abiotic factors

A

nonliving part of the environment such as temperature, light, moisture, nutrients, pH, salinity, pressure

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15
Q

biotic factors

A

the living organisms

-ex. plants, animals, fungi, protists, bacteria

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16
Q

what does biosphere include

A

it includes the earth’s surface, atmosphere and hydrosphere that are occupied by living organisms
-all ecosystems of aquatic and terrestrial realms

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17
Q

populations change through time and vary from place to place
-predicting this change requires understanding of:

A
  • population characteristics
  • life history strategies
  • population dynamics
  • population growth
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18
Q

populations are characterized by

A
  • geographic range
  • spatial distribution
  • size
  • density
  • demography
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19
Q

geographic range

A
  • overall spatial boundaries within which it is found
  • within that range, each population occupies a habitat
  • example: penguins!
    • southern hemisphere
    • each species of penguin has a smaller range
    • and each population of penguins inhabits only a part of that smaller geographic range
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20
Q

habitat

A

a specific environment in which an organism lives

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21
Q

spatial distribution

A

populations vary in dispersion, how individuals are distributed within the geographical range and why

22
Q

random dispersion

A

individuals are distributed unpredictably within a uniform habitat

23
Q

clumped dispersion

A

individuals group together due to patchy habitats, social groups, or reproductive patterns

24
Q

uniform dispersion

A

individuals repel each other and are evenly spaced because resources are in short supply
-intraspecific competition

25
Q

population size

A

number of individuals in a population at a given time

26
Q

population density

A

number of individuals per unit of habitat

-individuals/km

27
Q

estimating population size and density

A
  • for large bodied species, a simple head count provides accurate information
  • for tiny organisms at high densities (phytoplankton), population size extrapolated from counts of samples
  • for mobile animals within a restricted geographic range, mark-release-recapture sampling
28
Q

demography

A

the statistical study of precesses that change a population’s size and density through time
-population structure

29
Q

which demographic processes affect size and composition of a population

A

births, deaths, immigration, and emigration

30
Q

life tables summarize population structure

A

data on births, survival and mortality of individuals within a population

31
Q

cohort life tables monitor what?

A

a cohort (individuals of same age) from birth to death

32
Q

data can be compared from one cohort to another to:

A

analyze variation in survival, mortality over time

33
Q

life tables can also summarize fecundity of a population

A

to determine mean reproductive rate at each age

-ex. proportion of female squirrels weaning a litter, or mean size of litters, or the age when females are most fecund

34
Q

timing of demographic processes is important

A

population with high juvenile mortality will have different structure than one with high mortality in post- reproductive years

35
Q

survivorship curves

A

show rate of survival for individuals over the average life span of the species

36
Q

three types of survivorship curves

A

type 1
type 2
type 3

37
Q

type 1 curves

A
  • reflect high survivorship until late in life
  • typical of large animals that produce few young and provide lots of parental care
    • humans, large mammals
38
Q

type 2 curves

A

(negative slope)

  • show a constant probability of dying at any age
    • some lizards, rodents, perching birds
39
Q

type 3 curves

A

(opposite of log graph)

  • reflect high juvenile mortality, followed by a period of low mortality once offspring reach a critical size
    • oak trees, shrubs, free spawning marine invertebrates
40
Q

life history theory

A

states that lifetime strategies of growth and reproduction are shaped by natural selection to produce the largest possible number of viable offspring

41
Q

life history strategies include

A
  • # of lifetime reproductive episodes
    • semelparity-iteroparity
  • number, size and care of offspring
    • r/K selection
42
Q

semelparous

A
  • single reproductive episode before death
    • devote all stored energy to a single reproductive event
  • ex.
    • coho salmon
      • larval salmon feed and grow for about 1 year before swimming to the ocean
  • 1 to 2 years later return to natal rivers to spawn… and die
43
Q

another examples for semelparity

A
  • annual plants, bacteria, many invertebrates
    • agave (vegetative growth can last up to 25 years, but also produces asexual clones)
    • giant pacific octopus
      - females produce a single touch clutch of offspring brooding them for about 6 months in a “den”. females die shortly after young hatch
44
Q

iteroparous

A
  • multiple reproductive events over a lifetime
    • part of energy budget is reserved for growth and maintenance
  • example
    • sea turtles
      • females come ashore and lay eggs in a hole and head back to sea
      • provide no protection to offspring, many will not survive
      • females will reproduce again the next year
45
Q

other examples of iteroparous

A
  • pine and oak trees
  • most mammals (including us)
  • all birds
46
Q

r/K selection

A

refers to selection of traits that trade off between quantity and quality of offspring

47
Q

r-selected species

A
  • generally small, with short generations times
  • produce numerous offspring sometimes in a single reproductive event
    • semelparous
  • little to no parental care to offspring
48
Q

k-selected species

A
  • generally large, with long generation times
  • multiple reproductive episodes over lifespan
    • iteroparous
  • produce very few, high quality offspring
  • offspring receive substantial parental care
    • type 1 or type 2 survivorship
  • thrive in stable environments: may use behaviors and physiology to buffer against environmental change
49
Q

trade-offs in number, size and care of offspring

A
  • the larger an organisms’s investment in each individual offspring, the fewer offspring it can produce
  • investment includes energy, resources, and time traded for alternative activities such as foraging
    - example: broadcast spawners release thousands of eggs per spawning versus caring for a mere hundred offspring
50
Q

trade offs in these different life history strategies

A
  • organisms allocate limited energy or resources to one strategy at the expense of another
    • reproduce oce or many times; produce few, well- provisioned offspring or thousands left to fend for themselves
51
Q

strategies evolve to optimize:

A

traits that maximize fitness

Biology 106 2015 (9 decks)

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